An #asteroid discovered days ago will narrowly miss Earth. An asteroid roughly the size of one to two school buses will fly by Earth Monday, coming as close as 91,593 kilometres (56,913 miles), according to the European Space Agency — equivalent to about one quarter of the distance between Earth and the moon.

Astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Survey in Tucson, Arizona, discovered the asteroid on May 10 and named it 2026JH2. The object belongs to a class of asteroids called Apollo, which orbit the sun on trajectories that intersect with Earth’s own orbit around the sun.

At its closest pass, 2026JH2 will be about 24 per cent of the average distance between Earth and the moon, and about two and a half times the distance at which hundreds of geosynchronous satellites orbit, providing services such as telecommunications and weather forecasts. The close pass is expected to occur on Monday just before 6 p.m. ET, according to NASA’s JPL Small-Body Database.

Despite the proximity, the space rock poses no danger, according to Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the inventor of the Torino Scale, a tool for categorizing potential collisions of space objects with Earth.

“2026JH2 will pass safely by the Earth,” he said in an email. “This is actually a rather normal occurrence, car-sized objects pass between the Earth and the Moon every week. At the size of a school bus, these pass through our neighbourhood several times per year. We are only recently developing surveys that are sensitive enough to see them,” he added, noting that before these surveys, objects of this kind would simply zoom by completely unnoticed.
Exact size unknown

The asteroid originates from the asteroid belt, an area between Mars and Jupiter, Binzel explained. “Occasional collisions in the asteroid belt, plus gravitational tugs by Jupiter, can send small asteroids into Earth’s vicinity. This fact has been known for many decades and many thousands of asteroids that can pass near the Earth are already known.”

Even though astronomers have directly observed the object hurtling toward Earth, its exact size is unknown. The uncertainty is due to the fact that when an optical telescope sees a new object, the only information it gathers is the object’s luminosity in visible light. There is no way to know how much light the object absorbs or reflects, according to Patrick Michel, an astrophysicist and director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France.

“Thus, at the same luminosity, an object can be bigger and darker, or smaller and more reflective,” he said in an email. “To know the size, we would need observations in the infrared, because the luminosity in the infrared is directly proportional to the size. But such observations are more difficult to do from the Earth and are not used to discover new objects.”

Based on assumptions about how much light is reflected, 2026JH2 is currently estimated to be between 15 and 30 metres (50 and 100 feet) in diametre. At the smaller end of that range, Michel said, it would be similar in size to a bolide, or fireball, that exploded in the atmosphere over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, shattering windows and injuring 1,000 people. At the highest end of the range, it would be closer in size to an object that exploded near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908, which pulverized large swaths of forest. Unlike both of these objects, however, 2026JH2 will not even enter the atmosphere, so there is no risk it will explode.

Although the distance at which the asteroid will pass seems very close, it is still “far enough that there is absolutely nothing to worry about,” Michel said. But he noted that predicting 2026JH2’s future trajectory is difficult, and we can’t rule out that it might eventually be on a collision course with Earth. “The good news is that so far, no asteroid that we know of poses a risk for the timescale of our predictions, which is about a century on average,” he added.
Waiting for Apophis

An object at least 10 times bigger than 2026JH2, called Apophis, will pass much closer to Earth, at a projected 32,000 kilometres (20,000 miles), on April 13, 2029, “Yet, we are not worried at all, and on the contrary very excited,” Michel said. “Such a close approach of such a big object occurs only once in a few thousands of years and its light will even be visible with the naked eye in the night sky across Europe, Africa and part of the middle East.”

By contrast, during its closest approach, 2026JH2 will only be detectable with small telescopes at dark sites, but it will remain 100 times too faint to be seen by the human eye, according to Jean-Luc Margot, a professor of Earth, planetary and space sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Part of the reason we don’t have more detailed information about the asteroid, he added in an email, is that our planetary radar capabilities are currently degraded. “The Arecibo telescope collapsed in 2020 and NASA’s Goldstone antenna is down for major repairs for an extended period of time. Without radar data, we are less capable of assessing the impact risk and we are more vulnerable to the impact hazard.”

A partial livestream of the close pass will be provided by the Virtual Telescope Project using telescopes in Italy, starting at 3:45 p.m. ET, and lasting until the object is no longer visible from that location.

So far, astronomers have observed only about 1 per cent of the near-Earth asteroids in the same size range as 2026JH2, Margot said, and therefore “it’s not surprising that this object was discovered only a few days before its closest approach to Earth, when it became bright enough to be picked up by asteroid detection surveys.”

He added that it’s concerning that we do not have complete knowledge about the population of near-Earth objects but noted that space agencies are now actively funding discovery surveys to improve our inventory of potentially hazardous asteroids.

Jacopo Prisco, CNN

Does it matter who gets to the moon first? Artemis II crew says ‘it does’. One month after #NASA’s Artemis II crew completed its historic mission around the moon, members of the team are acknowledging a 21st century space race between the United States and China, saying “it does” matter who gets to the moon first.

Back in April, the Artemis II crew successfully completed a 10-day mission to fly around the moon, marking NASA’s first crewed lunar flyby in 50 years. The mission also carried astronauts farther from Earth than any humans before them.

The crew included Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, and American astronauts: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch.

Speaking to CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday, Koch said there is “absolutely” a race between the two countries for benefits.

“I think that the benefits that we get from going to the moon are apparent to many, many countries,” Koch said. “And that’s why the question that I think our countries face isn’t to go or not to go, but should we lead or should we follow?”

Asked by Kapelos if it matters who gets to the moon first, Koch said, “I would say it does.”

“Oftentimes, the people that pursue something great first, they get to set the standards. They get to pave the way. They get to set the rules,” Koch added.

First established in 2017, NASA’s Artemis program has experienced delays, but plans continue for its first crewed lunar landing by 2028. The program has a broader goal of establishing a long-term presence on the moon, and ultimately, future missions to Mars.

China, meanwhile, is aiming to land its first astronauts on the moon by 2030. China has gone to the moon multiple times, but exclusively with uncrewed spacecraft.

When asked if the U.S. and China are in a space race, Glover said he agreed with Koch’s assessment and pointed to the NASA-led Artemis Accords – a non-binding set of international principles designed to guide civil space exploration. Currently, more than 60 countries have signed the accords, including Canada.

“I say this a lot. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” Glover said. “We’re willing to do this as a coalition and that’s harder because you got to get everybody to agree and to buy in.”
Will Canada and the U.S. continue to collaborate in space?

One of Canada’s most notable contributions to space exploration is the creation of the Canadarm.

The Canadarm is a robotic arm that made its debut in 1981 – first launched aboard Space Shuttle Columbia – and was used to support U.S. space missions for three decades. In total, five Canadarms were built and delivered to NASA with the program ending in 2011.

The Canadian Space Agency, meanwhile, had been recently working to provide hardware – including a $1-billion-plus AI-enabled robotic arm – for NASA’s orbiting space station around the moon, known as Gateway. But in March, NASA announced it’s pivoting away from the plan, leaving Canada’s contribution to the lunar program up in the air.

Asked by Kapelos whether that decision threatens collaboration between the two countries, Hansen said, “it doesn’t” and insisted NASA is looking for “partners who bring real value.”

“This is all opportunity, but it’s not going to fall in our lap. We have to be very intentional,” Hansen said.

“Good news Canada, (we) got a lot of value to give. We just really have to make some decisions,” Hansen added. “There’s some short-term decisions and some long-term strategy that we need to just look at, make some decisions and get after it. I have no fear.”

The moment comes amid strained relations between Canada and the U.S. in large part due to trade tensions.

When asked about having a Canadian represented on the Artemis mission, Wiseman said it was the “utmost importance” to have Hansen as part of the team.

“We could have gone alone as the United States of America, but we made room for others to share their gifts,” Wiseman said.

Wiseman also highlighted how Canada will be needed in the space race.

“We need the brilliance of this nation to come forward and help us build a sustainable presence on the moon. We are in a race, and we aren’t going for a one off. We are going because this is the next step in human civilization, and we are going to do that together,” Wiseman said.

You can watch the Artemis II crew’s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.

#Europeans are piling into space stocks, and one standout winner is the fund Seraphim Space Investment Trust after its stock quadrupled in price

#WASHINGTON — #Lunar Outpost, a developer of lunar rovers, has raised $30 million as it works to revamp designs to meet #NASA’s revised Artemis #architecture.

Rocket Lab announces large launch contract and plans to acquire #space #robotics company

#WASHINGTON — A #spacecraft designed to raise the decaying orbit of a #NASA astrophysics satellite has passed environmental tests ahead of a launch as soon as June. Swift reboost mission completes environmental tests

#WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has nominated Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess for promotion to four-star general and selected him to become the next chief of space operations, positioning a career operator to lead the U.S. military’s youngest service as it shifts toward more contested space missions.

#NASA to increase value of CLPS contract to support surge of lunar lander missions . #WASHINGTON — NASA is planning to increase the total value of a contract for robotic lunar lander missions to support a proposed surge in flights for the agency’s moon base plans.

In an April 27 procurement filing, NASA said it was planning to increase the maximum value of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion.

The CLPS contract includes 13 companies that are eligible to compete for task orders for specific missions. The current CLPS contract expires in 2028, with planning underway for a follow-on contract, called CLPS 2.0.

NASA has awarded task orders whose combined value is less than $2 billion to date, and with the recent pace of about two task orders a year, would have only come close to the contract ceiling in 2028. The large increase, though, suggests NASA is planning to award more missions or more valuable missions over the next two years.

Asked about the filing during an April 29 panel session at the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium spring meeting, Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said he was not familiar with the document but that the agency expected to buy more CLPS missions.

“We’re looking into opportunities to buy into that ramp of demand for the very short term even as we work on issuing the CLPS 2.0 contract competition,” he said. “We have to start ramping now into this higher cadence, with a target of monthly landings, to bring some of the things to the surface very, very soon for Moon Base.”

At NASA’s “Ignition” event March 24, the agency outlined plans to develop a lunar base, simply called Moon Base, and with it a sharp increase in the number of robotic lunar landings. That included nine landings in 2027 and 10 in 2028.

That would be a sharp increase from current flight rates under the CLPS program. There were two lander missions in 2025, one by Firefly Aerospace and the other by Intuitive Machines. NASA is projecting up to four lander missions in 2026, by Astrobotic, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines, although the charts shown at the Ignition event showed only two landings projected for the year.

That sharp increase has generated skepticism about NASA’s plans within industry, given recent flight rates and the time needed to develop a lander. NASA announced at Ignition a new CLPS award to Intuitive Machines, called IM-5, but that mission is not projected to launch until 2030.

Representatives of CLPS companies said on the panel that they can increase lander production but did not explicitly commit to the production rates needed to meet NASA’s projections.

“We’ve heard the call. We know this is NASA’s initiative, and we want to do more and more,” said Farah Zuberi, director of spacecraft mission management at Firefly. She noted her company now has three landers in production — Blue Ghosts 2, 3 and 4 — and has added new clean room space to support up to eight spacecraft at a time.

“There’s a lot of creative solutions that we can come up with,” she said. “Having that signal is really important. We know that this is coming. We can set ourselves up for success.”

Blue Origin is finishing testing of its first Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, called Endurance, at its Florida factory after performing thermal vacuum tests at Johnson Space Center, said Eddie Seyffert, director of civil space at the company. It is also manufacturing components for the second Mark 1 lander, which the company plans to use for NASA’s VIPER rover in 2027.

That work is done at Blue Origin’s Lunar Plant 1 factory, with 190,000 square feet of space “dedicated to making lunar landers to answer NASA’s call,” he said. “We’re excited about the challenge, and we want to show our stuff.”

Dan Hendrickson, vice president of business development at Astrobotic, said his company has already scaled up facilities to meet demand for its original CLPS mission. “We’ve got the basic DNA and roadmap” to meet higher demand, he said. “We’re starting from a place in which we have facilities that were intended to have multiple landers in development.”

One key issue is the supply chain for lander components, said Ben Bussey, chief scientist at Intuitive Machines. “The key, if you’re trying to ramp that up to multiple missions per year, is knowing you’ve got a supply chain that can do it in time, or bring things in-house,” he said.

He added that, on early CLPS missions, each lander was “slightly bespoke,” modified to meet the needs of its payloads. That’s less likely to be the case as flight rates increase. “I think you’ll see some form of standardization.”

“Going to build-to-print landers is maybe the response to the signal” from NASA’s Ignition plans, said Seyffert. “We’re going to build-to-print dozens of landers to help NASA achieve its goals.”

Turning moon ice into drinking water: A Canadian company’s challenge. As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) moves towards establishing a permanent presence on the moon, a Canadian company is hoping to solve one of the biggest challenges for astronauts in deep space – accessing drinkable water.

The Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) was recently awarded $400,000 in grant funding after it won the Aqualunar Challenge, led by the Canadian Space Agency in partnership with Impact Canada.

The challenge aimed to identify innovative companies that could develop technologies “to purify moon water for human deep-space missions.”

CSMC was awarded the grand prize last month for its “LunaPure” technology, which the company says offers a sustainable and low-maintenance system to purify water trapped in the form of ice in the moon’s polar regions.